Hells Bells
by mabelreid
Summary: Maeve's soul is trapped in Hell and only Reid can save her, with the help of a certain Guardian Angel named Stanley.
1. Prologue

**_Disclaimer: see my profile_**

**_A/n once upon a tim_****_e, I wrote a one shot about a very stressed out Guardian Angel name Stanley, who just happened to have a difficult charge name Spencer Reid. Well, I was inspired by Poe, ACDC and bells in general. So here is my story of Hell, Spencer Reid versus the Devil and Maeve. Please enjoy. You don't have to be familiar with "The Woes of Stanley," but I wouldn't be upset if you read that one too! _**

**_I warn you this is not a parody and there are some religious and supernatural themes. Please turn back if this isn't your cup of tea. _**

_Prologue_

Stanley hurried through wispy white clouds as a bell chimed in the distance. Its peal sent chills through his wings and they fluttered as though teased by a spring breeze.

He passed through an archway into a huge room with towering pillars all around him. A woman, with black hair and blue eyes the color of the sea after a winter storm turned around and glided to him.

"Desiree," he said. "What's wrong?"

"It's going to happen tonight."

"Oh," he closed his eyes and bowed his head. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I was just informed by Stephen."

Stanley led her to a small cloud formation near one of the pillars. "I'm so sorry."

"Me too," she said as a tear dropped down her cheek. "She was my first assignment. I love her."

"Of course you do, all angels love their charges."

"I didn't think it'd hurt this much. I know she's going on to a much better place, but, Stanley, she's so young."

Stanley nodded, and pain tore at him too. "It doesn't seem fair, but the Big Guy has a reason for everything."

She shook her head. "I know I'm supposed to accept that without question, but how can I? How can you? This affects you too."

Stanley rubbed at the bridge of his nose and sighed. He reached over and took her hand. "Yes, it'll affect me too, but I'll handle it. It's not like he's the easiest charge in the world."

She smiled at him and another; more pleasant chill ran through his wings. "I heard about the meltdown you had over him."

Stanley would have blushed had he still be capable. "Yeah, well, I was stressed out. Stephen showed me that I just had to relax and let Spencer live his life."

Desiree stood up and began to pace in front of him. "Why couldn't I get through her? I should have been able convince her to let Spencer help her. Now, it's too late."

"It's her time," Stanley began.

He tried to go to her and embrace her, but she pushed him away. "I don't care. There has to be something I can do."

"You know there's not," he reminded her. "You can't alter what He decrees."

"Why not? There's always a first time for everything. Why have wings? Why are we guardians, if we can't save them?"

He watched her rage up and down and realized that on some level, he agreed with her. He also knew there was nothing they could do to stop it.

"Come on," he took her hand again. "Let's get back."

She pulled away from him. "Why? So I can watch her die and do nothing."

He held out his hand. "No, so you can be there when she crosses over. She needs you more than ever, now. You must lead her to the other side where she'll find peace."

"Alright, but I'm doing this under heavy protest," she said looking up. "Do you hear me, under protest?"

"Desiree," Stanley rebuked sharply."

"Don't tell me you don't agree," she snapped as they began to walk out of the arched room. "I remember how happy you were when they met. You said he'd finally found his soul mate. Aren't you furious?"

"Yes," he admitted. "How does agreeing with you change anything? Every decision she and Spencer have made has led to this. If only she'd let him help her, if only he'd gone against her wishes and involved his team, then none of this would be necessary." He held out his arms and his wings beat impatiently.

"You said it was a matter of destiny."

"Why do you have to argue with everything I say?"

"Because you're cute when you get mad," Desiree shot him the first smile he seen since their meeting.

"Desiree!"

"Alright," she sighed. "I know that free will is the most important thing to Him, but sometimes…"

He took her hand again as they passed through another cloud and found themselves on Earth, in the middle of a sunny day with blue skies. It was cold, but neither felt it as they separated.

"Don't think about the sometimes," he advised. "Just go be with her. She needs you. I have to get back to Spencer. He's about to call her."

Desiree nodded and disappeared like a feather on the wind. Stanley blinked his eyes and appeared next to a phone booth just as Dr. Spencer Reid hurried toward him with such an uplifted expression; Stanley's heart broke for him.

"I promise I'll be there for you."

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"No, wait," Spencer screamed as the shot rang out through the room. Stanley hurried to him as his charge sank to his knees and began to sob in heartbreaking agony.

Desiree hurried forward when Maeve's soul stepped out of her body. She ignored Dianne, who rose out of her dead body and looked around in confusion. Desiree reached out for her charge, when, suddenly a cold wind sprang up and ringing, as if the clamor of bells in and empty and abandoned church began to echo. "No," she shouted.

Several beings, as black as the deepest, darkest pit in Hell, with eyes that glowed with inner red fire as dark as the life blood that surrounded the bodies of the dead women. They instantly surrounded the women and howled like wolves.

"Get back," Desiree screamed. "She doesn't belong with you."

She threw out an arm, but huge black wings knocked her aside. One of the demons laughed and it was like the laughter of human madness and animal blood lust at the same time.

"Do not interfere," he growled. "They belong to us, fool. The Master commands it."

"No," she's a good woman," Desiree countered holding out her hand to Maeve who screamed.

Dianne screamed, and the demons laughed and fluttered their black and tattered wings. The movement of their bat like wing set up a wind of dank and sulfurous air that pushed back at Desiree as she tried to reach her charge.

"Help me," Maeve screamed as one demon grabbed her under her arms like some enormous bird of prey and lifted her off her feet. Desiree fluttered her winds and rose with them, but they were too fast. They flew away passing through the walls of the building and then, diving fast toward the pavement. Maeve and Dianne screamed in terror as they disappeared from view.

"No," Desiree shouted and tried to follow them.

Stanley suddenly appeared beside her and yanked her back into level flight. "You can't follow. She's gone!"

"NO!"

"It's too late," he said and tears cascaded down his cheeks. "Go, tell Stephen what happened. I must go back to Spencer."

Her wings folded and she dropped to the ground as a bird shot from the air. He watched her huddle and sob on the pavement as cars passed through her and people walked past her with eyes that only saw what they wanted to see.


	2. Out of Body Experience, Again

**_Out of Body Experience, Again._**

He gripped the door tightly as the SUV rushed through rain soaked streets. Water splashed up to coat the windshield with tattered, muddy, runnels that the wipers had to work to keep clear.

"Morgan," he said through tight teeth. "Slow down."

Morgan ignored him as he took a screaming left turn from State Street onto 17th South. The SUV slid and he cursed. Reid closed his eyes as they bumped over the sidewalk and back onto the wet black top. Sirens wailed from their vehicle and the other cop cars that followed them through the streets of Salt Lake City.

Reid opened one eye and saw that they were coming up on third West like a bullet from a gun. The light turned red, but Morgan pushed his speed up as lightning split the sky and thunder boomed so loud it was like a cannon blast. Reid flinched and clenched his mouth together so hard his jaw ached.

The sky roiled with clouds so black, it was nearly as dark as night despite the fact it was only 6 pm. Abruptly, the rain increased until it sheeted off the car windows and everything took on a wavering quality.

The small, tan car they chased, that contained their latest un-sub, and his most recent victim in the trunk, fishtailed and slid thorough the red light, to a chorus of screaming brakes and horns. Morgan cursed and Reid shut his eyes again as they weaved between stopped cars in the middle of the intersection. Morgan's right fender kissed the front fender of a red pickup truck with a squealing crash, but he didn't stop.

They were halfway down the block when the killer's car roared to a stop because another truck blocked his path. He dove out the driver's side door and reached under his shirt to pull out a gun. He shot before Morgan could react and the first round punched a hole in the windshield between them.

"Get down," Morgan hollered as the SUV shuddered to a stop. "Stay there," he commanded as he jumped out of the SUV. Another round buried itself into the back seat. Reid opened his door over Morgan's protest and got out into the rain that instantly drenched him from head to foot. He crouched behind the open door as other cop cars stopped behind them with screeching brakes. He heard voices shouting over the pouring rain. Thunder boomed again and something banged into the door. He felt a jolt in his chest and pain, the same kind of tearing, burning pain he had felt after being shot in the leg. He looked down in wonderment at this new agony because he was wearing a vest.

Blood as red as the truck they'd hit pumped from the hole in his chest. "Oh, cop killer bullets," he managed to say before he closed his eyes and slumped to the ground.

He opened his eyes to brilliant white light all around him. This light he knew, he thought as he stood, rather than lay in dirty water in the street. He wasn't soaking wet and he didn't feel the cold of the storm anymore. He felt a joyful elation at the realization that it was his time to die. He could be with Maeve now.

"Spencer," a voice said.

He turned and searched eagerly for the owner of the voice in the brightness of the Light. It had to be Maeve. Oh, how he longed to see her again.

"Spencer," said the voice and out of the Light came a man.

Spencer blinked. No, it wasn't a man, or at least not just a man. This person walked with a woman with a very sad face. They both had wings that fluttered behind them as if in a breeze he couldn't feel. They wore white, the man in a suit and the woman in a long flowing robe. She had black hair, sea blue eyes and a heart shaped face. The man was short, thin, with light brown hair and brown eyes. His face was round and very kind.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Stanley. I'm your guardian angel."

Reid laughed because it had to be some kind of hallucination or joke. "There's no such thing as guardians angels," he managed to say.

Stanley only smiled at him. "I don't have time to debate my existence with you," he said mildly. "Maeve is in terrible danger. You have to save her."

Reid blinked. "No," he shook his head. "She's dead. She can't be in danger."

"You're the one that thinks we're not real," he gestured to the woman next to him. "Yet you believe that she's in some better place because she's dead."

"I admit that the possibility of the existence of angels is slight, but what does that have to do with Maeve? Where is she? Why isn't she here? I've missed her so much."

"Yes, I know you have."

Reid rounded on the man. "How do you know?"

"It's been almost four months since she died. I've watched you grieve. I know you didn't sleep for weeks because you thought you failed her so you couldn't fail the others that need you. You were afraid to sleep because you didn't want to dream of her and all you could have had together."

"Stop it!"

Reid held up his hand. Strange, he didn't feel his heart beating in stress or tears running down his face even though he wanted to cry. He didn't feel the blush of anger on his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, but you have to know that I've been very close in the last months. Now, you're here and we need you."

Reid looked over at the female angel. "Who are you?" She flinched back at his abruptness and he smiled. "I'm sorry," he said kindly.

"You shouldn't be sorry. My name is Desiree, and I was Maeve's guardian angel. I failed her."

"Why?"

Stanley glared at Reid. "She didn't do anything wrong. It was Maeve's time to die. Even we can't interfere with that."

"So is this my time," Reid asked.

They looked at each other and Desiree said. "Let's just say you're not quite dead yet."

"What are you talking about? I've been through this before. I know that my heart must have stopped."

"Yes," Stanley said. "Your heart did stop, but there's still the possibility you can be brought back."

"A possibility," Reid inquired. "I thought it was all or nothing with you people."

"You know better than that," Stanley said. "You've been through this before," he reminded Reid. "We don't have time to argue about fate and destiny. As I said, we need you to help Maeve."

"Where is she?"

"She's in Hell."

No one had sucker punched Reid so effectively until now. He found he couldn't speak. All he could do was stare at these - these beings standing in front of him. It had to be a nightmare. He'd wake up soon and realize that all of this was another terrible nightmare, just like all the other horrible dreams he'd had since Maeve died.

_Come on, Spencer open your eyes and wake up!_

"You're not dreaming."

Spencer blinked and his mouth finally formed words and sentences. "There's no such thing as Hell. It's a metaphysical concept created by organized religions to control -"

Stanley smiled thinly. "I told you," he interrupted impatiently. "There's no time to argue. You must rescue Maeve."

"I don't - I don't know what you want me to do. Even if I believed you, how could Maeve be in Hell? If you espouse Christian beliefs, she belongs in Heaven. She was a good woman -"

He had to stop talking because pain like a knife or bullet to the chest overwhelmed him. He blinked but he couldn't cry. Rage at the lack of his normal reactions had him turning away from the so-called angels. "Let me wake up!"

"You're not dreaming," repeated Stanley.

The man was standing in front of him again and he was staring at Reid like a parent with an unruly child.

"Time moves differently here, but that doesn't mean you have all the time in eternity. You're here because your heart stopped. If they bring you back, then you'll never get Maeve out of Hell."

Reid felt wild laughter building up in his chest. He was having an absurd conversation with beings that didn't - couldn't exist. Okay, he was willing to accept the existence of the ultimate Good or Evil, but Angels?

"Spencer?"

He looked at the man whose wings were fluttering behind him; a bit irritably, Reid decided and wanted to laugh again.

"What?"

"If you need proof, I can show you."

"We don't have time," the woman said, and her sea colored eyes glared at both them. "You have to take a leap of faith, Spencer. You have to because Maeve still needs you. Her physical body is gone, but her soul is in real danger."

"I can't - It's just not possible. This is a dream. It has to be a dream."

"Enough!"

Stanley stepped between them and snapped his fingers. Reid blinked and all he could hear around him was the wail of sirens. His vision abruptly cleared and he saw that he stood near a man lying on a gurney, with two other men near him. One of them was talking on a radio, while the other worked on the figure lying next to them.

He was in the back of an ambulance, he realized, and then he jolted in surprise and terror. The man on the gurney, whom his eyes refused to acknowledge, was he. He jerked when one of the men, a paramedic moved right through him.

"Hey," he tried to say, but they acted as if they didn't hear him.

The face against white cloth stained with scarlet blood couldn't be his face because he was standing right there, but somehow it was. He watched in horror as monitors beeped and the men talked calmly to each other, but with a sense of underlying urgency.

He noticed that the closest monitor showed his heart flat-lined. He stumbled back as he realized they were applying two leads to his chest and abdomen. The medics spoke to one another in quiet, even tones, but he could see in their body language and the way they looked at each other that he might actually die.

"Clear," one of them commanded and touched a button on the machine near Reid's left side. His body jerked under the onslaught of the defibrillator.

He blinked and he was back in all the white with Stanley and Desiree. "Now do you believe me?"

He nodded, despite all of his misgivings. "What if I decide not to fight for my life? What if I die?

Stanley hung his head and Desiree scowled at him. "You can't," she snapped.

"Excuse me, but it's my life, or my death," he said testily. "I decide, it seems. I want to be with Maeve. I'm lost without her. I can't go on."

"Yes," Stanley said. "You can and you will. If you give up now, Maeve is lost forever. If you go into Hell as a true Soul without the tenuous connection to your physical body, you risk Eternal torment. Only a Soul such as yours, pure and connected to the physical world, can rescue her."

"I'm hardly pure," Reid protested.

Stanley smiled widely and shook his head. "You are the purest soul, I've ever protected. You confuse purity with piety. True purity comes from tests, from challenges that try our minds, souls and bodies. You've been through the Fires of Hell on earth and it has refined your soul as a blacksmith refines steel.

Spencer paced back and forth. "I don't know what to do."

"You have to go now," Desiree said impatiently. "Time is running out."

"I don't understand. Why can't you just go into Hell and get her?"

"It's not our job." He stated flatly. "The Archangels have attempted to rescue her, but they've failed. Their compassion and purity make them targets, for corruption and conversion to demons. We can't allow that to happen. The last thing either of our worlds needs, are more demons."

Reid closed his eyes and tried to force his logical mind to believe and take the leap of faith that was required. "I don't know if I can do this."

"I believe in you," Desiree said.

Stanley nodded, and placed a hand on Reid's arm. "We have been given special permission to accompany you. We won't leave you."

He opened his eyes to find Desiree staring at him with eyes that suddenly reminded him of Maeve and the way she'd looked at him in the last moments of her life. He trembled. He couldn't fail her again. He believed because there was nothing left to do.

"Alright," he said. "Show me what I have to do."


	3. Go to Hell, Spencer

_**Go to Hell, Spencer.**_

"Come with us," Stanley said.

He and Desiree led Reid through wispy clouds that seemed to part around them as if they were living things. As they walked, Stanley talked.

"The most important thing to remember is that you will be tempted to give into despair when you see the suffering of the damned. The souls that inhabit Hell are there because that's where they belong. You must remember there's nothing you can do to help them, no matter how much you want to. Do you understand?"

Reid nodded mutely as the clouds around them began to thin just a bit as they traveled.

"Your greatest gift isn't your intellect," Desiree said. "It's your compassion and empathy. Lucifer will try to take advantage of that gift and distract you."

Reid nodded and swallowed hard. "I'm afraid," he said honestly.

"If you weren't frightened, I'd say you were a fool and I know you're not a fool."

"I feel like one."

Desiree clasped his hand and warmth like a fire in the deepest part of winter filled him from head to toe. "You can do this."

Suddenly, the white clouds were gone and he stood at the precipice of a great chasm that seemed to go on forever. He flinched back and began to shake. Lightning split the red sky that roiled with black clouds. He clapped his hands over his ears to drown out screaming voices that rose from the pit. The air stank with sulfur and the odor of decay he knew nearly as well as the perfume of a beautiful spring day.

"What's happening?"

He had to shout over the howls and wails of millions of voices that wafted up from the chasm.

"This is the way into Hell."

A hand, black as the soot from a stove fire, rose up out of mists the color of blood and scrabbled over the edge of the pit. A voice rose in a scream so full of despair that Reid bent to grab the hand.

"No!" Stanley pulled him back. "Remember what I said. You can't help them."

Reid looked over the edge and saw something his eyes couldn't comprehend crouched at the rim of the cliff. It hissed up at him and cackled out insane laughter. "Fresh meat," it crooned. "Come down and join us."

He watched in horror as the creature, no longer recognizable as human snagged the hand of another poor creature, which crouched near, and bit it off with savage glee in its eyes. It stuffed the hand into its mouth and chewed with such enthusiasm that Reid wished he could be sick. The second creature wailed in agony until its hand reappeared and the first creature bit it off again.

"So tasty," the little creature said and beckoned to Reid. "Come, Spencer Reid, join us in sweet agony."

"Stop it!"

Stanley dragged him back from the edge of the pit. "You can't help them," he repeated but there were tears running down his face.

"Why is it that you can cry and I can't," Reid demanded.

"Because we are Angels; you're simply a disembodied soul. Now, we have to hurry."

"I don't understand."

"You must go willingly. You must take a leap of faith."

"You want me to jump."

"It's the only way. If you try to climb down, the souls that inhabit this place will destroy you. Trust your heart and it will take you to Maeve.

Reid nodded and thought of the last time he heard Maeve's voice. He remembered the trust in her eyes the first and last time he saw her and he thought of how he failed her.

"Don't think about that," Desiree said. "Think about the first time she told you she loved you. How did you feel?"

"I felt like I could fly," he said.

"Then you can."

He nodded and stepped off the edge of the chasm.

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Maeve yanked on the chain around her wrists as she had pulled on them for what seemed to be an eternity. They rattled around her and the demons that circled her howled with laughter. "Why don't you give up in despair," one taunted her and its scarlet eyes glowed like fire in a face so twisted and ugly she wondered that she hadn't gone mad.

"Yes," cooed another demon. "You can't escape, so there is no other choice but to join us. Accept the offer of the master and become our Queen."

"Never," she screamed. "Spencer, help me please."

"Spencer," one of the demons aped. "Help me," it mocked her.

"Enough," a voice commanded from outside the circle.

She knew the voice. It was Spencer's voice, but it wasn't, there was something wrong with it. It was _his_ voice, the Father of Lies, the King of Hell, the one that wanted her for his Queen. He was Satan, Lucifer, the devil, the face of despair and agony. He thought he fooled her at first, but she knew Spencer's voice and though he looked like her beloved, he couldn't quite get Spencer's voice right. There was coldness in it that called to mind the solitude of the grave. It wasn't warm and kind, like Spencer. There was no love, only greedy lust.

She flinched when he stepped through the circle of demons and strode up to face her. Spencer stood in front of her, but he wasn't Spencer.

"Have you made up your mind, my beauty?"

"No!"

She shouted it and the demons laughed and rustled their ragged wings so that they stirred up a noxious wind that blew back her hair from her shoulders.

"I grow weary of your resistance."

He stepped forward and touched her face. His hand was icy cold and the skin felt like acid. She screamed and he smiled. His eyes suddenly went black as ebony and his voice changed and deepened. She tried to move back, but her legs were frozen.

"No one will come to rescue you. Join me of your own free will and we shall rule together."

"Never," she shouted with all of her strength.

"You will change your mind, I promise you."

Suddenly a white light appeared over her head and something materialized out of it. The demons howled and cowered back as three beings in blinding white walked out of the column of light. One of them was Spencer. It was another trick. It had to be. "No," she said.

"Maeve," he called and rushed forward.

One of the demons reached out for him and held him fast with one taloned hand. It laughed gleefully. "Master," it said, "A new soul for your torment."

"No," said the Spencer doppelganger. "He has the stench of Life around him," he observed.

He came close and sniffed like a dog with a new toy. He drew back and his eyes changed to fiery red. "You have the sweet odor of Death on you, as well. It is very strong. Very interesting," he said with a smile that froze Maeve's heart.

"It would seem you are at a tipping point, Spencer Reid."

"That's not for you to decide." Stanley pointed out as the demons circled around them.

Lucifer whirled around on the Beings with Spencer that Maeve didn't recognize.

"How dare you interfere here?"

"You robbed Heaven of a soul meant for Paradise and you ask us how we dare," Desiree spoke up.

"Ah, yes, guardian angels. It appears that you have failed."

"You're demons took a soul not meant for this place."

Lucifer threw back his head and roared out laughter. "Where is the fun in tormenting eager sinners that earned their eternal punishment? That's so boring, so I steal souls of the good and corrupt them to evil. That is so much more satisfying."

"And yet, you've failed with me," Maeve said. "Even though this is another of your tricks, I won't give in to you."

"It's not a trick," Spencer in white said. "Listen to my voice. You know I'm really here."

She felt her head nodding before she could stop it. It was his voice without the flavor of hate that was in the Devil before her.

"He is right," said the Spencer twin. "He is the true Spencer Reid and now we're going to have some real fun."

"You call this fun," Desiree shouted, infuriated.

"No," Stanley said, when she moved forward. "You can't hurt him."

"He's right. You're nothing to me. No one, but God himself can thwart me. I exist because there must be a balance between good and evil."

"That you try to tip in your favor," said Stanley.

The Spencer look-a-like turned ruby eyes on the Angel and growled like a wolf. "As do you," he spat.

"We don't rob souls."

To Maeve's surprise Lucifer laughed. "Are we going to argue for eternity or get down to the business at hand? I assume you mean to do something heroic and selfless," he directed at Spencer, "I imagine something like; you'll stay here and take Maeve's place."

To his surprise, Reid found that his head nodded in agreement with Lucifer before he could control the reaction.

"Yes, I have had that offer in the past. I'm not interested. You see, I know many things about you. You have thwarted me more than once. You hunt down willing souls that do my work and you've stopped them before they could do all I asked of them."

"I'm very happy about that," Reid said as though someone else was directing his speech. "Why don't we stop playing games and you tell me what it will take for Maeve to leave this place and go to Heaven.

The Spencer twin grinned at him. "I have a game in mind. If you win, you and Maeve may leave this place. If you lose, you both stay and Maeve becomes my Queen."

"What kind of game?"

The demons circling them howled and laughed as their wings ruffled impatiently.

"First, do I have your agreement to the terms?"

"No," Desiree and Stanley said in unison. "It's a trick."

"Don't do it," Maeve cried. "They're right; he's trying to deceive you."

"I assure you that I will play fair."

Reid stared into his own face and tried to read it, but for some reason all of his skills were wasted on a Being, he couldn't conceive of in his life let alone in this place. He knew what the Bible said about Lucifer, but then he looked at Maeve and saw the misery in her eyes. Hadn't she suffered enough? He'd failed her once. He refused to do it again.

"Agreed," he said.


	4. What do you Fear, Spencer

_**What do you Fear, Spencer?**_

A hush fell over them, like the hush right before the first ominous thunderclap that announced a storm. Into the silence that had driven through Reid like an arrow from a bow came the clanging of distant bells. At first, they reminded Spencer of church bells, but then the volume increased as though someone wound up the dial on a radio. Reid clapped his hands over his ears as they clanged and clashed as though right over his head. He vibrated as though he stood right in the belfry of deserted and broken down church, left to molder and decay back into the earth.

"Maeve," Reid screamed over the clatter of the bells he couldn't see.

He saw that she reached out for him. He reached for her, but a fierce wind, as cold as the deepest part of winter in January, burst over them and buffeted them.

Then, it all went silent and he began to spin. Faster and faster, he revolved until his stomach rebelled. He retched and vomited until his gut was raw. He opened his eyes when the dizziness passed. He realized he was on his knees in front of a white porcelain toilet that desperately needed cleaning.

"Hey," someone said from his left. "You done, because I ain't gonna stand here all day."

Reid automatically reached up and flushed the toilet. It went with a roar and washed away the stinking contents of his stomach. His belly roiled again, but he staggered to his feet and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"What's going on? Where am I? Where's Maeve?"

He addressed all of this to a fat, but tall man in a white polo shirt and stained white pants with white lace up shoes. He wore his dirty blonde hair restrained in a ponytail. His light blue eyes pierced Spencer with such contempt that Reid took a step back from him.

"Come on," the man said. "I ain't got time for twenty f-ing questions. Get your ass outta that stall and wash your face. You stink like a stuck pig in July."

"No," Reid said with his hands fisted at his sides. "I want some answers."

"Oh, well excuse me, Dr. Reid. You're wish is my command, sir."

The punch took Reid unaware. One minute he stood there, the next he doubled over from the blow to his stomach. "Don't make me beat you down," the man said as he yanked Reid's face up by his hair. "I ain't got time and if I have to explain why you've got a couple of black eyes, I ain't gonna be happy. Are you gonna come along like a good little psycho, or do I hafta knock more sense into you?"

Reid nodded and choked back the urge to vomit again, this time all over the man's shoes. Who knew what this man would do to him if he messed up his shoes?

"Yessir," he gasped out.

"Good. That's the way I like it, obedient little cockroaches in my house."

He laughed and grabbed Reid's arm. "Now wash your out mouth, you little puss puddle. I gotta make sure you get back to your room. It's beddy bye time."

His fingers dug so hard into Reid's arm, he nearly screamed out in pain, but he bit down on the urge to cry out. The man held onto his arm liked a vice until he washed out his mouth. Then, he dragged him out of the bathroom and into a long hallway. Reid looked around the corridor with its barred windows and white, dingy tile. The walls were block and concrete, and as dirty as the floors.

Another man, dressed identically to the man that marched Reid down the hallway, passed them dragging a woman with dark hair. She looked down, her hair hiding her face, but there was something about her…

As though she felt him staring at her, she glanced up at him and he stopped in his tracks despite his captor's talon-like grip on his arms.

"Maeve," he whispered.

"Shut up," the man said. "No talking among the animals."

The other captor laughed uproariously with Reid's new friend. It was like the best joke he'd ever heard. "Good one, Glen."

"Come on, you little shit. I ain't got time for no little romance."

Reid ignored him to stare at her lovely blue-green eyes that regarded him fearfully. "Go away," she whispered.

His heart jumped in his chest. "Maeve, we have to get out of here. Don't you remember?"

Glen, his guide in this white hell, slapped him so hard his nose began to bleed. "God damnit,' he shouted. "Didn't I tell you to shut the f-k up?"

The second man dragged Maeve away. She resisted, but the other man hit her across the face and she collapsed. "No," Reid shouted. He wrenched away from Glen and hurried to her side. "Don't you touch her," he hissed at the other man, his teeth bared like a wildcat.

"You ain't the boss here, hoss."

Glen grabbed him and yanked him away. Reid slipped out of his grip and fell. His head smacked the wall and he dropped like a stone to the floor.

"No," he heard Maeve scream. "Let go of me!"

"You just bought yourself another session with The Doctor."

Reid rolled to his back, and coughed. His head thumped in time with his heart and his stomach threatened to rebel. Acid leapt in his throat and burned, but he barely felt it because all he could see were the tears in Maeve's eyes.

"Don't hurt him," she screamed.

Glen reached down and yanked Reid to his feet. "Get up, you little pansy assed freak."

"Let go of me," Reid shouted.

"I don't think so, little man. It's too late."

"Let him go!"

"You know, Jake, this little love fest is getting on my nerves. Why don't we show Dr. Reid here what a real man can give a woman?"

"What do you mean?"

Reid bucked against Glen as the men laughed like braying hyenas in the depths of a hot desert night. "Leave her alone."

"I don't think so; I think we'll school you, boy."

"No!"

He yanked again and whirled around on the surprised Glen. He punched him as hard as he could, but the bigger man didn't respond except to laugh. "You can't hurt me," he said and his face rippled.

His eyes, as red as rubies, glowed in the low light. He smiled, but it was the smile of a predator about to strike a killing blow. "There ain't nothing you can do to stop us."

"Spencer," Maeve's voice was like cool water on a blistering July afternoon.

She was staring at him just as she had the first time they'd seen each other. Her lovely eyes that he missed so much implored him with their light.

"Remember," she said to him.

"I don't love you," he said. He jolted because it came out of his mouth before he could stop the words. "Maeve, I'm so sorry."

"I understand."

She reached out for him and he reached for her. The men, howled like wolves over a kill. The bells began tolling again, and this time the men cowered from them. They pealed forth as if they heralded the end of time.

"No," the men roared.

Reid felt the grip of his captor slip. He staggered out of Glen's grasp and grabbed for Maeve. Jake shrieked as Reid closed his hands over Maeve's arm and dragged her away. Light, as cold as morning in December arced between them and hit Jake. He screamed again and writhed to the floor. His form began to run and change like a watercolor left out in the rain. Reid backed away from him with Maeve. She stepped back and shrieked.

Reid turned and saw that Glen's transformation was complete. He was one of the demons with black, tattered wings, blood red eyes and talons. He shrieked in time with Jake. They rose up in flight, their wings beating at the air, which changed around them and became red and sulfurous.

"You have failed me," cried a voice that Reid knew.

"Master, they tricked us."

Giant hands, with nails as black as night and as sharp as razors, came down from the roiling, black and scarlet clouds over their heads and grabbed the gibbering demons from the sky.

"He is only a human," the voice screamed over the endless clamor of the bells.

"Please, Master, we won't fail again."

"There is no next time," said the disembodied voice. "You know the consequences of failure."

"NO!"

They writhed in the grasp of the hands as they crushed them together like chalk. Reid pushed Maeve's face into his shoulder and closed his eyes. The demons' shrieks echoed in his ears with the clanging of the bells and he wished he could go deaf.

The demons and the monstrous hand disappeared with a boom that sounded like thunder and a bright flash of red-orange light.

"What happened?"

Reid hugged Maeve so tight she squirmed in his arms. "Spencer, what's going on?"

"I'm so sorry."

She pulled out of his grasp and put her hands on his face. "It's okay, baby. I love you so much."

"I love you too."

She grinned at him. "I wish -"

Thunder clapped again and the sky blackened like the edges of burnt paper. Blood red light flashed against the roiling clouds in the black sky and a demon, the largest Spencer had seen yet, appeared and dropped to the ground in front of them.


	5. Final Temptation

**_Disclaimer: see my profile_**

**_A/n some of the dialog in this chapter is taken directly from season two "Revelations." All credit goes to the writers of the episode. _**

**_Final Temptation _**

The demon hit the ground so hard, it cracked. Steam rose up out of the earth, and the ground shook and writhed under their feet. Maeve stumbled away from Reid.

"Maeve," he screamed as the demon grabbed her in one of its huge claws. "No!"

The demon roared at him, his hair flew back from his face, and his stomach roiled from the stench of brimstone and sulfur. "I will show you my power cannot be challenged, Dr. Reid."

"Leave her alone," he shouted. "Take me."

Maeve shrieked as the demon lifted up and took flight into the black and scarlet skies.

"Maeve!"

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She stood with her eyes closed, afraid to open them since the Demon had disappeared. She no longer smelled Hell, no longer heard the screeching of the damned, but it was too quiet now.

"Open your eyes and see the truth," a voice whispered to her.

The hair stood up on the back of her neck. "No," she answered, but her voice trembled.

"Open your eyes," the voice insisted.

Her eyes opened against her will and a room swam into view.

It was small, with a desk and a wooden chair. There were books scattered all over the floor and stacked on another chair and shelves. A woman with short, disheveled blonde hair sat at the desk. She wore a knitted sweater over a white shirt with a light brown skirt.

"What are these men doing here?"

Maeve turned to see Spencer standing in the doorway with two men dressed in shirts with nametags and blue slacks.

"Spencer?" Maeve said.

He didn't look at her. He acted as if he couldn't hear her.

"Baby," she said again.

"They're from a hospital, they're here to help," Spencer said to the woman sitting at the desk.

"I don't need help. You can't be here without permission. Tell them, Spencer."

"I called them."

Spencer looked so young, no older then eighteen. Maeve tried to go to him, but Lucifer grabbed her arms and held her still.

"He can't see or hear you," he whispered in her ear and she didn't have to see him, to hear the smugness in his voice.

"Spencer," the woman said pleadingly.

"I'm doing this for you."

"This isn't legal," she denied.

"You're son's eighteen now, he can act in your welfare," one of the men said.

"You need help," Spencer said.

His mother bowed her head and began to cry. "I wanna stay here," she begged like a child."

"I'm sorry."

The men took her arms. "Please, these are my things, this is my life," she protested as they took her from the room.

Spencer turned to watch them go so Maeve couldn't see his face.

"I'm sorry."

"Spencer, please don't do this to me," his mother squeaked.

Spencer burst into tears as his mother disappeared around the corner. Maeve broke free from Satan and hurried to him. She tried to comfort him, but her arm went right through him when she put it around him.

"Observe," the voice like that of a snake hissed at her. "See what your beloved did to his own mother. He cast her aside like trash."

She closed her eyes to the scene and shook her head. "No, he told me about his mother. He loves her. He did what he thought was best."

"Thou shalt honor thy mother and father."

"And," she said snidely. "Did his father deserve that honor and respect? He left him alone with his mentally disturbed mother when he was only ten. Was that your doing?"

Lucifer roared and she flinched, but there was something in that roar that strengthened her resolve. The note of menace was muted by a rage that hadn't been there.

The scene changed again. She stepped forward and realized that she was in the middle of a wooded graveyard.

"Don't talk back to me," a voice spat. "Dig!"

Her hand flew to her mouth. Her beautiful Spencer knelt on the ground with a short handled spade. His feet were bare and his clothes filthy. He dug into the ground with the weakness of someone enduring a life ending trial.

"Oh God," she said to herself because one Sunday when the sun shined, he'd told her about this.

Spencer looked up as though he heard her.

"What are you stopping for," said the man standing next to a tree with a huge knife in his hand.

Spencer went back to his task. Maeve heard branches break. She whirled around to see lights in the distance. "Over here," she yelled, even though she knew what came next.

"Dig faster," the man, commanded.

"I can't," Spencer said.

"You're weak," the man replied and pulled off his coat.

Spencer must have seen the light as the man told him to get out of the hole he dug. The man noticed where Spencer looked because he turned his back. Spencer pulled the gun out of the man's coat pocket and pointed at him.

"There's only one bullet in that gun, boy."

He started toward Spencer with the knife. Spencer pulled the trigger and the man went down. Maeve cheered even though she knew how the story ended.

"You see, he killed my servant," Lucifer said.

He stood near Maeve and he was back in human form. She ignored him, but he moved in front of her so she couldn't see Spencer's team come on the run.

"Thou shalt not kill," Lucifer, reminded her.

"There is not a man on earth, who does what is right and never sins," Maeve quoted in return "Ecclesiastes 7:20. He was a murderer. He was going to kill Spencer and leave him here in lonely grave. It was self defense and _you_ know it."

She spat it at him like an oath. "Nothing you say or show me will change how I love him."

The Spencer doppelganger howled in pain and his face twisted into that of the Demon. He reached out and tried to grab her, but his hands passed through her. "NO," he cried out. "I will not lose you."

The scene flashed again and she stood in a bathroom. It looked ordinary enough, just like any bathroom, all white porcelain and tile. The rug on the floor was multicolored and looked as if it was hand braided. The shower curtain was white like a hotel and Spencer sat on folded down lid on the toilet. She watched in horrified fascination as he stuck a needle in his arm.

"Do you still love him even though he's a drug addict?"

She began to laugh and the Spencer twin finished his transformation to the frightening black demon. His blood red eyes seemed to burn like the fires she'd seen in Hell, but somehow she didn't fear them anymore.

"He's been clean for years."

She laughed again, and despite everything, it felt so good. Lucifer shrieked. "You will pay for your insolence."

"I don't think so," she said scornfully. "I think Spencer and I will go now."

She reached out for the Spencer sitting on the toilet. "It's going to be alright, baby. I promise you."

Then everything spun away into darkness, except for the clanging of distant bells.

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When Maeve opened her eyes, she stood in brilliant white light.

"What's going on?"

She realized that she was standing there next to Spencer and the two other Beings that had appeared with him when he'd first arrived in Hell.

"Spencer?"

He shrugged. "I don't know."

"It was you," said the other man who looked very ordinary, to Maeve, but for his eyes which surveyed her like a proud parent.

"Who are you and what do you mean, it was me?"

"I'm Spencer's Guardian Angel, Stanley, and this is Desiree, your Guardian Angel," he pointed at the woman next to him that seemed familiar to Maeve and not just because she'd seen her in Hell.

"Um, no offence, but I'm dead and Spencer," she turned to him. "Are you dead too?"

"He says I'm not, that I can still be revived. I was shot on a case," he supplied helpfully.

"I don't understand."

"I'll tell you all about it," Desiree said. "But right now, time is running short."

"What do you mean," Maeve demanded. "Why is it running short?"

"Because he's been clinically dead for nearly four minutes," Stanley said.

"But, it's been longer than four minutes since you found me," Maeve said in disbelief.

"I don't have time to explain the difference between how time works here and in the human world," Stanley interrupted.

He turned to Reid. "It's not your time yet."

Reid stared at her and tears welled up in his eyes. "I want to stay here with you, more than anything, but I -" He swallowed hard. "I know it's not the right time. I can feel it."

"Are you sure?"

They whirled to see the Spencer look-a-like standing in the wispy clouds of white. "I could make you my right hand," He said.

"You have no right here," Desiree said. "They defeated you fair and square. Get out!"

"Oh you are a feisty one," Lucifer said. "But, I'll take Spencer if he comes of his own free will."

"No," Spencer said. "I thought I was in hell when Maeve died but now that I've seen the real thing, I want nothing to do with your offer."

Lucifer inclined his head. "Well, you can't blame me for trying. You would have been a prize worth winning."

Suddenly he popped out of existence as though he'd never been there.

"I don't understand," Maeve said again. "How did we defeat him?"

"It was love. He doesn't understand what real love is, or he never would have rebelled against Heaven in the first place. He is all about power and hate. He doesn't know that Love is the most powerful force in Heaven and Earth."

"And, in Hell," Desiree said.

"So," Reid said. "I guess it's time to say goodbye," he squeezed Maeve's hand again. "Are you mad at me?"

"No," she said and smiled at him. "I could never be mad at you. I love you, Spencer Reid."

"I love you to, forever and always. Wait for me."

"I will."

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. At first, he froze in her arms, but then his hands found her waist and held her so close she thought they might just meld into one being.

"Wow," he said.

"Yeah, wow," she repeated.

She let herself drink in his eyes, and just when she thought she might get lost and never let him go, he disappeared.

"Spencer."

The Angel called Desiree took her arm. "He's gone," she said.

"Oh," Maeve dropped her eyes to her feet, which she couldn't see because of the cloudy white all around her. "I just wanted one more minute."

"I know... I wish you could have that minute."

Maeve sighed. "Lead on you two. I guess it's time for me to move on."

Stanley smiled at her. "I wish I could go with you, but this is up to Desiree, and now that Spencer is back in his body, he needs me."

"I know," Maeve said. "Please, take care of him for me."

"I promise," he held out a hand to her.

She took it and squeezed it. "Thank you for sticking with me. You were there when he was trying to get me to turn against Spencer, I could feel it."

"Yes, we were there, but it was you that defeated him. Don't you ever forget it."

"I won't," Maeve said and turned away from the spot where Spencer had disappeared, "Let's go."

_**A/n two more chapters to come. Thanks for reading.**_


	6. What if it was all a Dream?

**_Disclaimer: see my profile_**

**_What if it was all a Dream?_**

Rossi sat back in a spectacularly uncomfortable chair near Reid's ICU hospital bed. Monitors beeped around his young friend. Scarlet, life-giving blood infused in one of his arms. It plopped into the tubing like fat rain drops on summer's day.

"I've been sitting here for almost an hour," he said. "You better wake up before JJ kicks me out for her turn."

As though he heard him, Reid coughed, his eyes fluttered, but didn't open and he swallowed audibly. The monitor that traced his heartbeat began to bleat indignantly.

It seemed like a year, but a nurse in blue scrubs opened the sliding glass door and entered with a smile. "I see you finally joined us," she said to Reid whose head moved around on his pillow like someone having a lot trouble focusing on the world.

Rossi stood to one side of the room near a sink and toilet as the nurse checked vitals and spoke to Reid.

"Maeve," Reid whispered in a raspy voice.

"No, I'm Betsy. Is Maeve your wife?"

Reid shook his head and a tear escaped from under one of his eyelids, as he seemed to go away again.

"She was his girlfriend," Rossi said softly. "She was murdered a few months ago."

Betsy turned shocked, but kind brown eyes on him. "I'm sorry I didn't know."

"No reason for you to apologize."

He gave her a smile and she grinned back. "He's doing much better. I think he'll wake up for good in a couple of hours, but that's up to the doctor. I'll page him."

"Thank you."

"He's going to be alright. I know it."

"I think you're right."

Rossi went back to Reid's bedside. "I better go. JJ is chomping at the bit to see you."

"Rossi," Reid whispered. "Where's Maeve?"

"Maeve is gone, Spencer. Don't you remember?"

"Oh," he said and his eyes fluttered open. "It was so real."

He grimaced and tried to push up on the bed. "Stay where you are. You just had major surgery. You scared the hell out of us. We thought you were gone for good this time."

"I wanted to stay," Reid said hoarsely, "but I had to come back."

"Just take it easy and rest."

Reid nodded and his eyes shut again, but more tears seeped out from under his lashes. "We're not leaving until you're better," Rossi assured him and then went to find JJ.

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A week passed and Reid found himself in a new, semi-private hospital room. They told him that he was going to be okay. He wondered about that and his second out of body experience. The whole thing was beginning to seem like a dream.

Stanley stood off to one side of the room and watched as he'd been watching for seven days and nights without surcease. Reid hadn't required his services after their experiences in Hell, but Stanley wanted to make sure nothing went wrong in his recovery.

"How is he?"

He didn't turn at the sound of Desiree's voice.

"He's going to be okay, but I think his heart is broken again. Sometimes I don't understand His plan for His children. Why let them be together and then take it all away."

"You're the one that's always telling me everything happens for a reason. Don't stop believing that now."

He looked over at Desiree and tried to smile for her, but he couldn't quite manage it. "I don't know if I believe that."

She put a hand on his arm and he shivered. "I believe it and for now that's enough."

He nodded. "I just wish I could take his pain away."

"You taught me that we can't take their pain away, but we can love them when they need it."

"Yeah, I guess I'm just having a crisis of faith."

"I think you need a break. Come on, Agent Rossi is on his way into see Spencer. I think he can sub for you for a little while."

Stanley let her pull him away and as they passed through the wall, he wondered if he'd ever look at his job the same way again.

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Rossi greeted Reid who was awake and sitting up on pillows.

"Hey," Rossi said heartily. "How are you, kid?"

"Beat," Reid, sighed. "They made me get up and walk for awhile. Who knew it could be so exhausting just walking down the hall and back?"

"But it was better than yesterday?"

Reid smiled. "Yeah, it was better than yesterday."

"Well, then that's progress."

"How is everyone doing?"

Rossi shook his head. "They're all fine. I had to sneak out, though, to see you. I wanted to talk to you."

"Me," Reid said as he reached for his water bottle and sipped eagerly at the plastic straw.

"Yes, you," Rossi said and his tone was like the tone of a put out friend. "What's bothering you?"

"Nothing."

"Right, nothing, which is why you've been sulking for days. You're never going to get out of the bed for good if you don't stop acting like a spoiled child."

Reid turned his head away, sighed and said. "Fine, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell the rest of the team."

He laid it all out for Rossi, and waited for the older man to suggest Reid was ready for the nuthatch.

"I don't think you're crazy, if that's what you're waiting for me to say."

Reid sagged back on his pillows. "Why not? I think I'm crazy. How can you accept what I told you?"

"Reid," Rossi began. "Whether or not it was real or some elaborate dream doesn't matter. I've seen more things that I can't explain than what I can explain. I believe that is more than just random chance in our lives. If you touched that, then I say I envy you."

Reid looked down at his hands. "All I know is it wasn't right for me to stay, that it wasn't my time no matter how much I wanted to stay with Maeve. I know it like I know this is my left hand." He held up his hand and stared at it. "I wish I knew why?"

"You had the chance to say goodbye, Reid and tell her that you love her. I think the reason you've grieved so hard is that you had to let her go without telling her how you felt or saying goodbye."

"I'm not sure this way was any better."

"It was," Rossi said. "I can see in your eyes that some of your pain is gone."

Reid looked down at the blue blanket pulled up to his chest. "I feel…"

"You feel like you should hurt because if you don't it's a dishonor to her memory."

Reid's head snapped up. "Yeah… It's so stupid. I know better than that," he said irritably.

"Like I said knowing and feeling are two different things. Just take it one day at a time. The pain will lessen every day and soon you'll think about Maeve and smile because she'll be a memory that doesn't debilitate you with its pain. Then you'll understand."

"What?"

"If I tell you, it'd spoil the surprise."

"You sound like what I remember of Stanley."

Rossi smiled widely. "I wish I could meet my Guardian Angel."

Reid chuckled. "I'll bet they wish that they had other charges when it comes to this group."

Rossi laughed. "I'll bet you're right."

Stanley and Desiree looked at each other and grinned. "Oh if they only knew," Stanley said.

"I think some things are best left up to Immortals."

He laughed. "Well, I hear you're due to receive a new charge."

Desiree smiled with real delight. "Yeah, she's about to be born right in this hospital."

"Then," Stanley gestured to the door. "Let's go meet her."

**_A/n one more chapter _**


	7. Epilogue

**_Disclaimer: see my profile_**

**_A/n here's the last chapter. I just wanted to thank everyone that's supported this story. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Many thanks to my Beta REIDFANATIC for her support, friendship, and her willingness to be my ever faithful sounding board. _**

**_Epilogue_**

"I can't believe you got shot, again,"" Morgan said irritably. "What is it with you and guns in Utah?"

"What was I supposed to do," Reid squeaked. "He was going to shoot that little girl. I couldn't just let him kill her, or any of the kids."

"I just thank God he didn't have cop killers like the guy four years ago."

Reid squeezed JJ's hand as he sat in the examination room at the hospital. "Me too," he smiled.

JJ was about to ask him why he smiled as he'd almost died four years ago, when a doctor in maroon scrubs entered the room.

"I'm Dr. Mallander. I'm here to examine Dr. Reid, but first, I'm going to have to ask you all to leave," he said. His face was strained, but his kind blue eyes smiled at them.

"I don't need to be examined. The vest stopped the bullet. At most I have a badly bruised sternum. There's nothing you can do but tell me to get some rest."

Dr. Mallander's eyebrows went up. "Why don't you indulge me?"

Morgan was the last to leave the room and he said. "Don't give him an inch doc, or he'll take a mile. He likes to give his own second opinions."

Dr. Mallander laughed. "You'll forgive me if I say, let me do the diagnosing."

Reid slumped back on the bed and pouted as the doctor began his exam by asking Reid how much pain he was in.

Stanley and Desiree stood there watching them. Desiree's wings seemed to slump a little but otherwise she smiled, no, she grinned widely in Reid's direction.

"One of these days, I'm going to have a heart attack," Stanley was saying.

"You can't have a heart attack," Desiree reminded him.

"I know, I was speaking metaphorically."

"Thank you."

Stanley only stared at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, I think you know. You knew four years ago that it wasn't Reid's time, that he had greater things to do, like save the life of my charge."

If he could've, Stanley would have blushed to the roots of his hair. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Desiree stuck her finger his ribs. "Yes you do, but it's okay. You don't have to tell me. Just, well, I'm thankful."

"She's destined to do great things. Now, she will," he said simply.

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Reid shut the door to his new house, and called out, "I'm home."

A small blur raced out of the living room to greet him. The little girl was two years old, with long wavy hair and eyes the color of chocolate. She jumped into his arms and smacked a kiss on his cheek.

"Me miss dada," she informed him.

"I missed you too," he managed over the searing pain, holding her caused him.

"Hey there," said another voice.

He smiled over Dianna's head to her mother who stood in the hallway from their bedroom with a basket of folded clothes in her hands.

"Hey," he said. He carried his little one over and kissed her mother full of the lips.

"Oh," she said as he pulled away. "I want some more of that."

He laughed and just took a long minute to stare into her green eyes that twinkled and laughed whenever he came back from a long absence.

He put Dianna down despite her protests and groaned loudly. He rubbed at his chest where the bullet had bruised his sternum.

"Daddy, up," Dianna demanded.

"Daddy has a boo-boo," his wife said and Reid laughed.

"Don't get smart or I won't use my wiles to make you forget about that bullet."

Reid blushed and allowed his daughter to lead him to the couch. "I'm sorry."

Julie, his wife, put aside her laundry, and joined them on the couch with Dianna in her lap. "We love you," she said simply. "We need you. You have to be more careful."

He nodded and reached out to touch her cheek. "I promise I'll be more careful."

"If I had a nickel for every time you said that," Julie said.

"I know, you'd buy me the stars," Reid said.

"No, I'd buy myself a fast new car."

Reid pouted as Dianna tucked her head into Julie's shoulder and closed her eyes. He watched her little chest rise and fall. Thanks to Julie he could sleep peacefully again, just like his beautiful little girl.

"Whatever you want."

Julie pulled him closer. "I bless the day I met you."

"Funny," he said just before he claimed her lips, "I was thinking the very same thing."

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Maeve appeared next to the couch. She waved at Dianna and smiled. The little girl slept the peace of children who are loved and it lifted Maeve's heart. Her wings fluttered just a little as she watched Spencer with Julie.

"Are you okay?" Stanley asked from Spencer's shoulder.

"Yes," Maeve nodded and reached over to stroked Dianna's hair that was so like Spencer's. "I understand, now, why I had to die. It was meant to be this way."

"I admit I was surprised that He assigned you to her. Normally, new Guardian's aren't assigned to family or loved ones from their former lives, the pain is too fresh."

"It was hard," Maeve admitted. "at first, but then I realized that he's so happy. She makes him laugh and she loves him fiercely. I can't be angry or jealous."

"I'm glad because she made him smile again."

"Yes," Maeve said, "and so did Dianna. I never thought I could love anyone the way I love her."

Stanley nodded. "I understand, more than you know."

Maeve straightened as Julie stood and carried Dianna Maeve Reid to her little bedroom. Spencer followed them and stayed in the room after Julie put their little girl down for her afternoon nap.

Julie kissed him briefly and left him there staring down at his little angel. "I love you," he whispered to her and kissed her forehead.

Maeve hovered next to them and Stanley as Spencer stroked Dianna's hair. "I'm so glad I didn't turn down His offer to become a Guardian Angel."

"Me too," Stanley said. "You're a natural and you surely impressed Him with how you handled Lucifer."

Maeve shivered. "I'll never let anything like that happen to her, ever."

They faded away, leaving Spencer with his little girl. Some of his dreams had come true, but others only waited in the wings to be fulfilled.

**_THE END_**


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